Politics
DHS shutdown explained: Who works without pay, what happens to airports and disaster response
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A partial government shutdown is all but certain after Senate Democrats rejected attempts to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offered by Republicans on Thursday afternoon.
But it will not look like the record-long 43-day full shutdown that paralyzed Congress last year, nor will it look like the shorter four-day partial shutdown that hit Capitol Hill earlier this month. That’s because Congress has already funded roughly 97% of the government through the end of fiscal year (FY) 2026 on Sept. 30.
When the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14, just DHS will be affected by a lapse in its federal funding. While it’s a vastly smaller scale than other recent fiscal fights, it will still have an impact on a broad range of issues given DHS’s wide jurisdiction.
SCHUMER, DEMS CHOOSE PARTIAL SHUTDOWN AS NEGOTIATIONS HIT IMPASSE
A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer stands near a security checkpoint. (Michael Ciaglo / Getty Images)
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Disruptions to the TSA, whose agents are responsible for security checks at nearly 440 airports across the country, could perhaps be the most impactful part of the partial shutdown to Americans’ everyday lives.
Acting Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday that around 95% of TSA employees — roughly 61,000 people — are deemed essential and will be forced to work without pay in the event of a shutdown.
McNeill said many TSA agents were still recovering from the effects of the recent 43-day shutdown. “We heard reports of officers sleeping in their cars at airports to save money on gas, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet,” she said.
TSA paychecks due to be issued on March 3 could see agents getting reduced pay depending on the length of the shutdown. Agents would not be at risk of missing a full paycheck until March 17.
If that happens, however, Americans could see delays or even cancellations at the country’s busiest airports as TSA agents are forced to call out of work and get second jobs to make ends meet.
SHUTDOWN CLOCK TICKS AS SCHUMER, DEMOCRATS DIG IN ON DHS FUNDING DEMANDS
Coast Guard
The U.S. Coast Guard is the only branch of the armed forces under DHS rather than the Department of War, and as such would likely see reduced operations during a shutdown.
That includes a pause in training for pilots, air crews and boat crews until funding is restarted.
Admiral Thomas Allan, Coast Guard Vice Commandant, warned lawmakers that it would have to “suspend all missions, except those for national security or the protection of life and property.”
A lapse in its funding would also result in suspended pay for 56,000 active duty, reserve, and civilian personnel, which Allan warned would negatively affect morale and recruitment efforts.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks at a press conference following the passage of government funding bills, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2026. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Secret Service
The U.S. Secret Service (USSS), which is critical to protecting the president and key members of the administration, is also under DHS’s purview.
While its core functions would be largely unaffected by a shutdown, some 94% of the roughly 8,000 people the service employs would be forced to work without pay until the standoff is resolved.
Deputy USSS Director Matthew Quinn also warned that a shutdown could also hurt the progress being made to improve the service in the wake of the July 2024 assassination attempt against President Donald Trump.
“The assassination attempt on President Trump’s life brought forward hard truths for our agency and critical areas for improvement — air, space, security, communications and IT infrastructure, hiring and retention training, overarching technological improvements,” Quinn said. “We are today on the cusp of implementing generational change for our organization. A shutdown halts our reforms and undermines the momentum that we, including all of you, have worked so hard to build together.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
ICE operations would largely go on unimpeded during a shutdown, despite Democrats’ outrage at the agency being the main driver of the current standoff.
Nearly 20,000 of ICE’s roughly 21,000 employees are deemed “essential” and therefore must work without pay, according to DHS shutdown guidance issued in September 2025.
But even though it’s the center of Democrats’ funding protest, ICE has already received an injection of some $75 billion over the course of four years from Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). It means many of its core functions retain some level of funding even during a shutdown.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
CISA is responsible for defending critical U.S. sectors like transportation, healthcare, and energy from foreign and domestic threats.
The agency would be forced to reduce operations to an active threat mitigation status and activities “essential to protecting and protecting life and property,” according to Acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala.
That means a shutdown would significantly reduce CISA’s capacity to proactively monitor for potential threats from foreign adversaries.
“We will be on the defensive, reactive as opposed to being proactive, and strategic in terms of how we will be able to combat those adversaries,” Gottumukkala said.
Operations like “cyber response, security assessments, stakeholder engagements, training, exercises, and special event planning” would all be impacted, he said.
A U.S. Secret Service police officer stands outside the White House the day after President Donald Trump announced U.S. military strikes on nuclear sites in Iran on June 22, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
FEMA, one of the largest recipients of congressional funding under DHS, would also likely see reduced operations if a shutdown went on for long enough.
The bright spot for the agency is that past congressional appropriations have left its Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), the main coffer used to respond to natural disasters throughout the U.S., with roughly $7 billion.
The DRF could become a serious problem if the DHS shutdown goes on for more than a month, however, or in the event of an unforeseen “catastrophic disaster,” an official warned.
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FEMA is also currently working through a backlog of responses to past natural disasters, progress that Associate Administrator of the Office of Response and Recovery Gregg Phillips said could be interrupted during a shutdown.
“In the 45 days I’ve been here…we have spent $3 billion in 45 days on 5,000 projects,” Phillips said. “We’re going as fast as we can. We’re committed to reducing the backlog. I can’t go any faster than we actually are. And if this lapses, that’s going to stop.”
President Trump vowed political payback last year when Republican state lawmakers in Indiana defied him on redistricting, refusing to draw new congressional maps to help the party in the midterms.
He delivered on that threat.
On Tuesday, Republican primary voters backed at least five of the seven challengers whom Mr. Trump endorsed over incumbent state senators, according to The Associated Press. One incumbent was re-elected, and one race was too close to call.
Even as the president’s poll numbers sag, the results in Indiana showed his enduring sway over Republican primary voters and his continuing ability to exact political revenge. Here is what we learned on Tuesday:
Trump still dominates the conversation.
Whether voters were glad to hear from him or wished he had stayed out of a statehouse election, Mr. Trump’s involvement loomed over the campaign.
The challengers backed by the president included his photo on their campaign literature and posted social media photos of themselves at the White House. Some of the incumbents took pains to explain points of agreement with Mr. Trump, even as the president attacked them on social media.
“Tonight was a lesson to Republican lawmakers throughout the nation,” said Senator Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican who backed the challengers. “There are consequences for not representing your voters.”
In Columbus, Ind., south of Indianapolis, Brenda Forgey said the president’s endorsement proved persuasive.
“We are Republicans through and through, and if he endorses anyone, we are behind them,” Ms. Forgey said.
But that same endorsement drove James Vogel, another Columbus voter, to support the incumbent.
“He is ruling by chaos,” Mr. Vogel said of the president. “Every day, every week, it is something new.”
Trump succeeded in his first of several attempts to oust Republicans who defy him.
The result was a stunning rebuke for independent-minded Republicans and a warning to officials elsewhere in the country who have crossed Mr. Trump, the undisputed leader of the Republican Party.
“Donald Trump maintains his singular ability to catapult candidates from obscurity to Congress or, in this case, the Indiana Statehouse,” said Pete Seat, an Indiana-based veteran of the George W. Bush White House. “The organizational heft, the messaging acumen and the level of coordination required to pull off this feat cannot be — and should not be — underestimated.”
The results are surely cause for concern for two Republicans who have bucked Mr. Trump in the past and are now facing primary opponents backed by the president: Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
Like the newly deposed Indiana Republicans, Mr. Massie and Mr. Cassidy have long histories with their constituents and are known quantities locally. But Tuesday proved once again that in a Republican primary, Mr. Trump’s desires often outweigh whatever local good will candidates have built up.
Republican voters were split on Trump.
Indiana voters supported Mr. Trump by large margins in the last three presidential elections. Even still, and even as his preferred candidates racked up victories, Republicans voiced mixed reviews of his second term and were divided about the importance of his endorsement.
“He is doing what he is supposed to,” Athena Purtlebaugh said after she voted for the president’s candidate in Taylorsville, Ind. “Yes, he is coarse sometimes and I cringe, but he is doing the right things.”
But in Tipton, Ind., Jeff Crouch said that “he didn’t want to vote for anybody that was endorsed by President Trump.”
Mr. Crouch, a Republican, said he had voted for Mr. Trump previously, but not in 2024. He described his impression of the president’s second term as “somewhere between terrible and really terrible.”
The fight for the Indiana G.O.P. continues.
Indiana Republicans have amassed near-total control of the state over the last 20 years. But the fight over redistricting brought long-simmering fissures into the open.
The divide is not exactly between moderates and conservatives, but more between the party establishment and an ascendant faction that has modeled its style after the president’s.
On the one side, the state’s governor, lieutenant governor and many members of the congressional delegation lined up behind Mr. Trump.
On the other, former Gov. Mitch Daniels, who helped usher in Indiana’s era of Republican dominance, became a leading voice against redistricting. His successor as governor, former Vice President Mike Pence, mostly avoided the redistricting debate, but endorsed one of the incumbents seeking re-election.
Indiana’s two Democratic congressmen could face inhospitable new maps.
With so many Trump-backed challengers ousting incumbents who had voted against redistricting, the path appears clearer for drawing new maps before the 2028 elections.
Because Republicans hold durable majorities in both chambers of the state Legislature, the results from Tuesday’s State Senate primaries made it more likely there would be support for a G.O.P.-friendly redistricting next year.
It remains unclear how aggressive the new class of Indiana Republicans in the State Senate will be. Democrats hold seats based in Indianapolis, the state capital and largest city, and in the suburban Chicago communities of Northwest Indiana.
Kim Bellware, Robert Chiarito, Amy Lynch and Kevin Williams contributed reporting from Indiana.
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President Donald Trump marked Cinco de Mayo on Tuesday with a new Truth Social post featuring a stylized “NICE” graphic — a play on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
The post adds to a string of Cinco de Mayo messages from Trump that have repeatedly drawn attention online, including his widely shared 2016 taco bowl post that resurfaces nearly every year around the holiday.
Trump has frequently used the holiday to share posts blending humor, politics and immigration messaging; and had already publicly embraced the “NICE” branding concept ahead of Tuesday’s post.
The image shared Tuesday featured an eagle-and-shield design above the word “NICE,” styled similarly to federal law enforcement branding and appearing to reference ICE.
TRUMP VOWS NOT TO HELP BLUE CITIES WITH RIOTS, INSTRUCTS ICE AND BORDER PATROL TO PROTECT FEDERAL PROPERTY
A stylized graphic reading “NICE,” a reference to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, features an eagle and shield design in an image shared by President Donald Trump on Cinco de Mayo. (@realDonaldTrump via X)
Trump endorsed the idea of rebranding ICE as “NICE” in a late April Truth Social post, writing: “GREAT IDEA!!! DO IT.”
The phrase originated from a social media suggestion that Trump later amplified online.
The latest post also brought renewed attention to Trump’s most recognizable Cinco de Mayo moment.
HERE ARE 5 OF GUY FIERI’S FAVORITE TACO SPOTS ACROSS AMERICA AHEAD OF CINCO DE MAYO
President Donald Trump poses with a taco bowl at Trump Tower in a Cinco de Mayo post shared in 2016. (@realDonaldTrump via X)
In 2016, then-candidate Trump posted a photo of himself eating a taco bowl at Trump Tower alongside the caption: “Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!”
The post quickly went viral and has continued resurfacing online in the years since.
The image showed Trump seated at a desk with a taco bowl in front of him, giving a thumbs up as he posed for the camera.
DNC TACO TRUCK STUNT TROLLING TRUMP BACKFIRES ON SOCIAL MEDIA WITH VANCE, GOP: ‘CAN’T FIX STUPID’
The emblem of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement appears on a smartphone screen with the U.S. flag displayed on a laptop screen in Athens, Greece, on Feb. 3, 2026. (Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto)
Last year, Trump reshared the taco bowl post and wrote: “This was so wonderful, 9 years ago today!”
The post continues to go viral online as users revisit the original taco bowl image each year on the holiday.
One user posted an image of the president’s original 2016 taco bowl post, writing, “Cinco de Trumpo.”
Another commenter wrote, “such a classic,” and another quipped, “maybe the greatest tweet of all time.”
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Trump’s original taco bowl post remains one of the most recognizable Cinco de Mayo moments of the social media era.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
SACRAMENTO — State elections officials warned voters Tuesday to send their mail-in ballots in early after changes at the U.S. Postal Service that have led to slower mail service throughout California.
Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber said vote-by-mail ballots should be put in the mail at least a week before the June 2 election.
The officials also cast skepticism about social media posts that urge Democrats to vote “late” and to rally around one candidate in order to ensure a Republican doesn’t win. The posts are similar in wording and have spread on Facebook in the last week.
Bonta said the posts, which were brought up by The Times at a news conference in Sacramento, could be “misinformation” or “disinformation” and “potentially unlawful.”
“Get your ballot in the mail at least a week early,” he said. “You want to make sure your vote is counted. And the misinformation that you’re referencing is the misinformation we’re trying to combat.”
Voters using the postal service to mail their ballot within a week of the election should go inside the post office and ask that their ballot be postmarked, or can drop off their ballot at a secure voter box, officials said.
The new guidance comes after sweeping changes made by the Postal Service last year that has reduced the number of trips to pick up mail at post offices in mostly rural areas in the country, including California.
A Times analysis of last year’s November special election found that there was a significantly higher number of mail-in ballots that arrived too late to be counted compared with the 2024 election.
Rural counties saw some of the biggest increase in rejected ballots because they came in too late, The Times found.
The changes to the Postal Service are nationwide, but are particularly relevant in California because the vast majority of people vote in the state using mail-in ballots.
Voters who mail a ballot on election day, or even two days before, may not see their vote counted because it will arrive too late, Bonta told reporters.
“You want your vote to be counted, I want your vote to be counted,” Bonta said. “If you vote earlier, you maximize that possibility that it will.”
Vote-by-mail ballots are considered late if they are not postmarked on or ahead of election day or if the postmarked ballots do not arrive within seven days of the election.
Weber’s office also said it would look into a recent trend of social posts that urge California Democrats to “vote late” in the June 2 election.
The posts, which have appeared on Facebook and Instagram, are similar in wording, and tell Democrats to hold off from voting early to ensure that two Republican don’t make the two top spots, and to rally around one Democrat.
California’s primary election system allows the two candidates who received the most votes to advance to the November election, regardless of party.
With many Democrats crowding the ballot this year, some Democratic leaders have expressed concern fear that two Republicans — businessman Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — will take the top two spots because Democratic voters will be splintered among the party’s top seven candidates.
The validity of the social media posts are under scrutiny.
One post on Facebook last week, for instance, purports to be written by historian Heather Cox Richardson. The post warned voters not to vote until after all the debates in California have concluded and the front-runner is clear.
Richardson told The Times that she’s not connected to the post. “I didn’t write it and we can’t figure out who did,” she said in an email. “I haven’t — and won’t — take any position in a primary.”
The last statewide election in California was closely watched after the U.S. Department of Justice said would monitor polling sites in some California counties after a request by California Republican Party officials.
However, the election proceeded without any incident.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday sent a letter to elections officials in the state’s 58 counties that highlighted recent legislation mandating that California ballots be counted within 13 days, instead of 30 days. Newsom thanked the elections staff for their work and urged a speedy vote count.
“We must acknowledge that the longer the voting count takes,” Newsom wrote, “the more mis- and disinformation spreads.”
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